So, I tried to pick some nettle the other day. I ended up having a LOT of help. It went something like this.
Head out to the pasture. Notice six small horses watching curiously. Notice six small horses following you.
Get to pasture, set down laundry basket. Horses immediately commandeer basket as their new favorite toy. They kick it, sniff it, pick it up, haul it around, and generally mess with it, ingnoring the fuming human saying "knock it off guys".
Horses finally get bored with laundry basket, until I bend down to start harvesting nettle. As soon as I put nettle in the basket, they eat it. This goes on for a while.
Eventually they decide to see if the laundry basket game is different/more fun if there is plant matter in the basket. Apparently it is, as they have a new round of mini horse laundry basket soccer. Complete with fuming human (being ignored).
Eventually the soccer match ends, and I can go back to picking nettle. This time *I* am the object of their attention. They pick the clippers from my pocket, sniff me up one side and down the other, gently nibble my clothes and hair. At one point there was a snuffly soft horsey nose down the back of my pants (they gap when I crouch down). WHOO! that's an experience.
See little Del here? Note my hand? that is my pushing him far enough away to even get him in the picture. I got about 10 photos of just white horse fur before I pushed his head back a little. "Up close and personal" is the mini horse motto, apparently.
At some point the get bored with me and I can actually get some nettle harvested.
Some of it, my bunny ate. He likes fresh nettle. Some of it got put into a crustless nettle quiche, and the rest got blanched and frozen for later. Yum. nettle!